Protesters killed in Iran

Sunday

Dec 27, 2009 at 11:03 AMDec 27, 2009 at 11:05 AM

Iranian police opened fire on protesters in Tehran on Sunday, killing at least four people, including a nephew of the opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi, as vast crowds of demonstrators flooded the streets of cities across Iran and fiercely fought security forces, according to witnesses and opposition Web sites.

ROBERT F. WORTH

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Iranian police opened fire on protesters in Tehran on Sunday, killing at least four people, including a nephew of the opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi, as vast crowds of demonstrators flooded the streets of cities across Iran and fiercely fought security forces, according to witnesses and opposition Web sites.

An Iranian ran as protesters burned police motorbikes during an anti-government demonstration in Tehran on Sunday.

The protests, taking place on the holiday marking the death of Shiite Islam’s holiest martyr, were the bloodiest — and among the largest — since the uprisings that followed Iran’s disputed presidential election last June, with hundreds of thousands of people thronging Tehran alone, witnesses said. There were reports of hundreds of injured people and numerous arrests.

In Tehran, thick crowds marched down a central avenue in mid-morning, defying official warnings of a harsh crackdown on protests as they chanted, “Death to the dictator!” They refused to retreat even as police fired tear gas, charged them with batons and discharged warning shots.

The police then opened fire directly into the crowd, opposition Web sites said, citing witnesses. At least four people were killed, the Web sites reported, and photographs circulated of a man with a bloodied head being carried from the scene.

One of the dead was Ali Moussavi, Mr. Moussavi’s 35-year-old nephew, the Parleman News Web site reported. He was shot near the heart at midday in Tehran’s Enghelab Square, the report said.

Protesters successfully pushed the police back in some areas, hurling rocks and capturing several police cars, which they set on fire. Videos posted to the Internet showed scenes of mayhem, with dumpsters burning and groups of protesters attacking Basij militia volunteers amid a din of screams.

Protests and clashes also broke out in the cities of Isfahan, Mashad, Shiraz, Arak, and Najafabad, opposition Web sites said.

The protesters deliberately blended their opposition message with the day’s religious meaning, alternating anti-government slogans with ancient cries of mourning for the prophet Mohammed’s grandson, Hussein, the 7th-century saint whose death in battle is commemorated on the Ashura holiday.

The day’s clashes showed an opposition movement that is becoming bolder and more direct in its challenge to Iran’s ruling authorities. Yet the protesters continued to reclaim Islamic symbols from the government, which has cast its opponents as anti-religious rioters. On Saturday, when protesters gathered outside a prayer hall where the reformist former president Muhammad Khatami was speaking, they chanted, “The family of the Imam are with us,” a reference to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran’s 1979 revolution. Ayatollah Khomeini’s grandson, Hassan, is widely said to support the opposition movement.

The protests may also have received a boost from the death last week of Grand Ayatollah Ali Hossein Montazeri, a patriarch of Iran’s Islamic revolution who became a fierce critic of the country’s rulers, especially in recent months. His memorials have brought out not only the young activists and students who have dominated protests in recent months, but older and more traditional residents who revered him for reasons of faith as well as politics. Sunday was the seventh day since his death, an important marker in Shiite mourning rituals.